Polarity
by Catch23North
Summary: Skyfire rescues Starscream by mistake, and one thing leads to another. Trust is not always a yes-or-no question though, especially for a transformer who never wanted to take sides in the first place... Skyfire/Starscream, eventual MP.
1. Chapter 1

Polarity

--

The sandstorm was getting worse.

Overhead crackling bolts of energy shot back and forth, and molten sand scoured down on the combatants below like hail. Skyfire's damaged wing hydraulics had grounded him minutes ago, but he fought on bravely with a captured Decepticon laser cannon. An explosion overhead momentarily deadened the wind, and an angular body impacted into the sand a short distance away.

"Retreat!!" Megatron yelled over the fray, and Skyfire saw the glowing line of afterburners disappear two by two into the stinging haze.

Skyfire grabbed the downed 'bot in the sand nearby and transformed, calling for the others over his comlink. Beneath the howl of the wind there was only an eerie silence, but then he realized that the silence was the result of a damaged comm. antenna, nothing more.

Without flight capability, the only thing for it was to lie flat against the sand and wait until the storm passed.

Layers of sand built quickly into a dune around him, and Skyfire's audio receptors were left with only a faint hiss of noise from above, like a the static of a television turned down low. He expelled the loose sand from his vents with a quick blast of compressed air and slammed the shutters closed, cutting power to all but his essential systems to keep from overheating.

Then he waited.

"Ohh... What- what's happened?" a groggy voice asked in the darkness.

Skyfire switched on a light in his payload bay, activated a monitor camera, and almost swore. He'd rescued Starscream.

There was no help for it now though, and he -had- to keep the Decepticon from damaging him from the inside.

"Try not to move, Starscream. You were badly hit."

"...Skyfire?" Starscream said, incredulously.

"-Yes." Skyfire replied, reluctantly.

Starscream sat up carefully, and cried out when the movement scraped the ruin of his right-hand gun against his twisted right wing. He locked the components in place to keep from damaging himself further, and got to his feet.

"It's so quiet..." Starscream said, almost to himself, "-are your ventilation systems down?"

"No, but we're buried under the sand."

Starscream smiled, and ran a hand over a coil of coolant tubing bracketed to the forward wall.

"Then I'd say YOU've miscalculated, traitor..."

"I don't have to explain my actions to you," Skyfire replied, angrily.

"So touchy, 'old friend'... don't you know I hold your spark in the palm of my hand?" Starscream purred.

"If you're going to do something, Starscream, just do it," Skyfire sighed.

"No threats? No references to Autobots waiting for me on the surface? Shame on you. ...Where's your creativity?"

"Unlike you, I can make decisions without grandstanding."

"...You KNEW it was me..." Starscream decided, optics narrowing thoughtfully.

Skyfire didn't answer him.

Starscream paced the length of the compartment a few times, then unfastened a panel on the left wall.

"...What are you doing?" Skyfire asked, keeping his voice level.

"You're leaking hydraulic fluid from somewhere in here," Starscream said, peering inside, "-I can smell it."

Skyfire left that one alone. He felt Starscream's taxi light pass over an optical fire sensor, searching. Then a shift of metal on metal inside his shoulder... Skyfire set his jaw, and tried not to think about it.

A painful surge of hydraulic pressure shot back up through the lines all the way to his forward pump, and the shuttle winced.

"Hold still, you big sparkling..." Starscream muttered, uncoupling a section of damaged hydraulic hose. Skyfire moved the camera trying to see what the Decepticon was doing, but all he could see was a few damaged components on the cargo bay floor, and Starscream's back. Uneasily, Skyfire watched.

"Try your left wing flight controls," Starscream ordered, stepping back.

Skyfire was too deeply buried in sand for a full ops check, but he -could- wiggle them now. Starscream couldn't see this, but he saw the hoses he'd replaced flex as they received and held pressure. The jet looked down at his oily hands in distaste, and wiped them off on a corner of Skyfire's insulation blanketing.

"...Thank you," Skyfire said, after a pause.

"You're welcome. -And now I don't owe you anything for the rescue."

"That's fair," Skyfire agreed, oddly disappointed.

"I'm -kidding- Skyfire," Starscream grinned, "-I never owed you anything in the first place."

-Please- let him just put the wall panel back, Skyfire thought.

"I just remember how cranky you get when you're hurt," Starscream added, leaning into the open compartment.

Skyfire wasn't sure what he was doing at first, but when he caught sight of Starscream's face in the camera again, there was a faint red sheen of hydraulic fluid on his lips.

"You've still got a thing for repairs," Skyfire observed, carefully.

"Mmm-hm," Starscream agreed, leaning against the wall and watching the camera lens, arms folded.

"What would you do if you really did beat Megatron?" Skyfire asked.

"Trying to keep me talking, are you?" Starscream smirked, seeing straight through the ploy. "...Whatever can you be afraid of?"

Skyfire thought carefully before answering.

"Don't make me regret picking you up, Starscream."

"Oh, I won't... In fact, I'm going to remind you just why it was such a good idea. How... grateful... I am."

"Don't do this, Stars."

"You can't stop me now, can you?" Starscream purred, nastily.

"No. But you can make me regret picking you up," Skyfire replied.

Starscream paused.

"Why should I give a flameout WHAT you regret?" he asked, seriously.

"Because you're better than this. And because you're still wondering why 'the traitor' hasn't turned you in."

"No, I've got a pretty good idea about that," Starscream told him, with perfect assurance.

"And that is...?"

"You like me," Starscream smiled, "-it's as simple as that."

Skyfire watched the smirking face in the lens thoughtfully. Despite what Megatron might believe, Starscream wasn't stupid. The long stretch of justified paranoia within the ranks of the Decepticons had taken it's toll, however...

"...I don't trust you." Skyfire said, quietly.

"You don't have to. -I'm already in your payload bay."

"Starscream-"

"I'm in here, you have no idea what I'm about to do to you... and the deep-down-dirty truth of it is... you're CURIOUS."

"I am NOT."

"Yes, you are," Starscream grinned, pointing a finger at the camera, "-but if you're too much of a bitmouse to find out..."

Skyfire decided he'd had enough.

"I've been pressurizing my payload bay since you came back on line," He informed Starscream calmly, "-if I open the doors now, the atmospheric pressure differential will rupture every tank in your body."

"Are you gonna do it?" Starscream asked, licking his lips.

"...Not if you don't give me a reason."

Starscream stared into the camera, and Skyfire could hear the faint hum of the fighter jet's cooling fans picking up for a minute.

"-What do you want me to do?" Starscream whispered, red optics glowing.

"Put my wall panel back in place."

Starscream waited for the 'and-', but there wasn't one. He sighed, and replaced the panel.

"Now stand flat against the aft wall, and just... feel."

Starscream had always enjoyed Skyfire's ignition sequence, and from what Skyfire could hear overhead, the sandstorm was over. He lit off his rocket pack, tearing up out of the high-piled sand like a ballistic missile, and shaking the grit loose from the hinges of his flight controls. His left side still felt stiff, but Starscream's repairs held, and their course was true. Skyfire switched on his afterburners.

He took them higher and higher, dumping pressure as fast as he could without damaging his passenger, until at last they kissed the cold blue edge of the Earth's outer atmosphere. Skyfire throttled back, and checked the payload bay camera.

Starscream was floating on his back in zero-G, optics still shuttered. A few pale green drops of coolant drifted up out of his mouth as he sighed, opening them. Gentle as Skyfire had tried to be, it had still been a -little- too fast.

"...Skyfire..." Starscream breathed dreamily, but nothing followed that.

Skyfire checked that the pressure was fully equalized, and opened his payload bay doors. Starscream swam out into orbit beside him, began to transform, and hissed at the pain from his forgotten wing damage.

"Don't," Skyfire said, transforming and pulling him in close.

"You -do- like me," Starscream murmured, triumphantly.

"I like you better when you don't talk," Skyfire smiled back, unfastening a small access hatch on Starscream's side.

The jet didn't -quite- pause, but Skyfire saw the moment of surprise flicker across his storm-gray face. ...The next moment, the shuttle had his hands full.

Starscream was hungry, sweet, demanding, small blue fingers rediscovering the joints of Skyfire's body, touching his face, his hands, stroking the tiny, flat sensors along both sides of the shuttle's folded canopy.

Skyfire ran a calming hand along Starscream's undamaged wing, ghosting his thumb under the leading edge at just the right angle. Starscream gripped Skyfire's shoulder, and shoved the large white hand at his waist aside impatiently to plug in the cable himself.

Starscream froze, lips parted and optics dimming a little.

Skyfire paused at the force of the signals that suddenly flooded his database, then cupped one large hand behind the small of Starscream's back to anchor him, and let the other finish drifting down the jet's sharp, tapered wing with dreamlike slowness.

You/I/we/them/us became just -him- again, and each felt the current of power surging across the cable between them, a hum, pulse, a deep harmonic like the roar of a train underground.

It increased, echoing back and forth like sonar. Thoughts. Feelings like splashes of paint mixing together, whispers melting through circuit diagrams, and the all-encompassing tone, building...

It was too good to last.

A scream ripped across the link, echoing in the silence of Skyfire's helmet radio, and he grabbed the scattering program that was Starscream tightly, powerfully built database holding both of them out of reach as all logic seemed to shatter in a sheet of white energy.

Skyfire came back online with a low hum of electricity still flickering pleasantly along his circuits.

He heard someone murmuring softly, and realized with a start that he was listening to Starscream think. ...Neither had meant to go quite -that- far, but the connection had been so good, so intense after all this time that-

Starscream kissed him deeply, still riding out the last of it on a wave of possessive/fear/lust/happy/crazy/what did I just say...? that made Skyfire smile.

The jet's eyes flared red then dimmed a little, and Skyfire gathered Starscream's loose-jointed frame against his chest thoughtfully.

He reached down and unplugged the heavy-duty cable between them, shivering as a last spark snapped across.

Starscream stirred, groaning softly against the cool white metal of Skyfire's chest plate.

"...Hi," Skyfire whispered, simply.

"Mmmm-Mmmm..." Starscream purred, optics switching back on and focusing slowly.

Neither spoke for a while, and Skyfire started silently picking out constellations over Starscream's shoulder as they drifted.

"...Will you take me back down?" Starscream asked, finally.

"Now?" Skyfire frowned.

"No. ...Just soon."

Skyfire could feel the uneasy tension in Starscream's control cables reasserting itself.

"...That was really good, wasn't it?" Skyfire whispered, nuzzling an inlaid antenna on the side of Starscream's helmet. Starscream laughed softly.

"-Yeah. ...Want to sneak off like this again some time?"

"I'll think about it," Skyfire promised.

"Hmf," Starscream sniffed, with a very knowing look.

--

-tbc?-


	2. Chapter 2

Starscream powered up slowly, and felt the wind shifting across his wings. It was cool, with just a hint of frost to come before morning. He folded his hands over the large white arm around his waist, and looked back. He could feel that shuttle was online through the cable that still connected them.

"How soon until the Autobots dispatch a search party?" Starscream asked.

"A day or two, I imagine. Your theoretical patrol on the other hand, will be over in two point six four hours," Skyfire reminded him.

"Yes..."

An amused sensation not unlike underwater bubbles brushed across Starscream's mind, and he flinched.

"-Afraid I'll try to hack your thoughts, Stars?" Skyfire asked, quietly.

"No. Your new Autobot -code- won't let you," Starscream replied, scornfully.

Skyfire ignored this, and ran the tip of his nose along the length of Starscream's delicate right aileron, placing a kiss where it met the gray wing's trailing edge.

Starscream leaned back into the caress, lips slightly parted.

"Why is it-" the jet hissed, "-that I can hate everything you ARE and still want this?"

"Polarity," Skyfire told him, after a moment's computation.

"Polarity?" Starscream repeated, dubiously.

"Yes. I'm everything you won't let yourself be, and vice-versa."

"Does that mean you'd rather be a fighter jet?" Starscream grinned.

"Hardly. ...But I do find you a useful source of perspective."

"Well, what have you learned?" Starscream asked, settling back.

"I want no part of the Decepticons as long as Megatron is in charge. ...That cannon is insane."

"What else?" Starscream asked, somewhat disturbed by the remark.

"I know this is harder for you than it is for me."

"-You mean getting away? That's just because you're seen as a scientist," Starscream said quickly, "Optimus Prime doesn't understand that he can just TELL scientists to build things, so he usually leaves them alone. ...Once the Autobots figure out you're also a flying BUS you'll have enough to do."

"Actually, what I meant was-" Skyfire began.

"No, you're cut off. If you'd rather talk shop than play with my wings, you can go right back to your Autobot friends," Starscream told him, firmly.

"Your wings are most interesting," Skyfire agreed, watching a subtle look of relief cross the other mech's face without calling him on it, "-but there's also the matter of your tiny little wheels..."

"HEY! LEGGO, YOU-!"

.

* * *

Somewhere in high Earth orbit, Skyfire powered down his boosters and fired a few judicious bursts with his navigational thrusters to counter the last of his momentum.

"Payload bay, this is Skyfire. Is everyone all right back there?"

Several Human voices answered him excitedly, but quickly dropped to just that of the mission commander.

"That's affirmative Skyfire, we are A-okay. Mission control, this is Asimov 1, how copy?"

"Asimov 1, this is Mission control. We read you loud and clear. You are officially the first NASA-Autobot space mission, and you are clear to proceed."

Cheering on both ends of the comm. this time.

"Payload, are you ready for the outer doors?" Skyfire asked.

"Stand by..."

"-Copy."

"Okay, we're all hooked into the UAV pod. Go ahead."

Skyfire opened his payload bay doors, and watched as the six Humans towed a space capsule out with them. It was a necessary precaution in case they became separated from Skyfire by accident or Decepticon attack, but they looked like a team of scavenger-bots at work, and it was funny as anything.

Over the next few hours, a new space station began to take shape.

.

* * *

"Going somewhere, Starscream?"

"Did you have a job for me, Megatron?"

"No, I've just learned not to leave you alone too long. It gives you the most... unhealthy ideas."

"You mean I notice how often the great and MIGHTY Decepticon army is ordered to flee in the face of even odds?" Starscream asked, slyly.

"You've NEVER comprehended strategy, and you lack even the wit to realize it," Megatron spat.

"-No! Don't destroy the little Autobots while we have the chance, I wanna watch them suffer-" Starscream mimicked.

Megatron struck him a short, vicious punch that put a long crack in the jet's canopy.

Starscream stumbled back, tripping over a small boulder and staring up at the larger mech, startled.

"...Remember your PLACE, Starscream," Megatron sneered, "or will I have to rip off your wings to remind you?"

.

* * *

Skyfire touched down inside Autobot headquarters, and transformed as soon as Bumblebee and Wheeljack had been unloaded from his payload bay. Ratchet seemed to be directing traffic, so Skyfire turned to him.

"How may I be of assistance?"

"Reach inside Wheeljack's lab, and get me the plasma welding torch," the red and white medic replied without looking up. "-And I'll need two sheets of Titanium alloy..."

Skyfire felt out of place in the busy medical bay once he returned with Ratchet's supplies, so he made his way out onto the rocky shelf at the foot of the Autobots' mountain.

Skyfire was used to seeing battle damage by now, but this time it had left him feeling drained and unsteady. Maybe it was because it was little Bee on Ratchet's table instead of one of the usual suspects, like Ironhide or Sideswipe. Skyfire didn't know any of the Autobots well, but he'd already picked up the general protective feeling towards Bumblebee and Spike. Ratchet -had- said he could repair the damage, but even so... Skyfire had caught the reflection of a blue-white glow in between the dented plates of Bumblebee's curved yellow armor, and his own spark winced just thinking about it.

.

* * *

Jazz watched Skyfire's approach in the last minutes before dawn, a wink of the sun glancing off the tip of one great white wing just before the shuttle descended into the mountain's shadow and touched down.

Skyfire cut his engines to minimum power, and taxied past Jazz on his way inside, blinking his fuselage lights in greeting.

"S'up, Rocket-man?" Jazz smiled back.

Skyfire transformed at the entrance to the Autobot base, and looked back at the long curtain of light edging down either side of the valley below. He sighed quietly through his vents, and turned to Jazz.

"It is so quiet up there..." he confided.

"You can -have- the quiet. Me, I'll take the Doobie Brothers," Jazz grinned, tapping one of his boxy helmet antennas.

"Goodnight, Jazz," Skyfire smiled back, walking inside.

.

* * *

"Good," Starscream said walking over purposefully, "-you came."

Skyfire went to take the jet in his arms, and got knocked back on his afterburners for his trouble.

"What was that for?" Skyfire asked, annoyed.

"DON'T stand me up again," Starscream warned, pointing a finger in his face.

Skyfire's optics flickered once. He pushed Starscream's pointing hand back down with measured but absolutely unstoppable strength, and folded the small blue hand in his own.

"I mean it, you glorified cargo jet-" Starscream persisted, "-YOU may have too much time on your hands, but I'M a high-ranking officer now, and-!"

Skyfire put two fingers to Starscream's lips, effectively gagging him.

"I apologize," he said simply, and lowered his fingers.

Starscream glared at him, and Skyfire detected the faint shimmer over Starscream's eyes that told him the jet had activated his heads-up display.

"Is that really what you want to do?" Skyfire asked.

Starscream targeted him, frowned at the Skyfire's apparent lack of response, then finally switched off the heads-up display with a rueful smile.

"-You could have been very wrong about that, shuttle."

"I know," Skyfire agreed, "-but I came anyway."

"Sky-" Starscream began, then broke off. He laced his clever blue fingers with Skyfire's large white ones, and studied the contrast they made.

.

* * *

"Skyfire!"

"I- -what-?"

Ironhide's stern red and gray face peered up at him with displeasure. On the screen behind him, the sky-spy's footage drifted past.

"What's it take to boot ya up, flyboy? Did you turn your audios down, or what?"

"No, uh..." Skyfire tried to remember deciding to begin his recharge cycle, and just...

Couldn't. The memory didn't exist in his databanks.

Ironhide saw his consternation, swore, and went straight to Teletran-1's keyboard.

"If somebody's accessed these files, we should be able t-" Ironhide read the computer's response, and relaxed. "-Huh. No commands given since 0023 this morning. THAT's a load off... But I'm -real- anxious to hear why you were rechargin' on watch."

"I... do not understand," Skyfire said, frowning, "-all I can remember is the beginning of my shutdown sequence, not deciding to activate it."

"When's the last time you recharged?" Ironhide asked, folding his arms.

"Yesterday."

"How 'bout your fuel tank?"

"It's at- -twenty-four percent, but that shouldn't be low enough to offline me..."

"Then you're goin' ta see Ratchet," Ironhide decided, "-an' he better find somethin' out of tune."

"Ratchet usually recharges until 0630," Skyfire observed.

"Yeeeah, an' since you're low on energon anyways, maybe you should take care o' that first."

"-Until around 0630," Skyfire deduced.

"Exactly. -And I've gotta warn you Skyfire, ol' Ratch was up diggin' deck sealant out of Mirage's left arm casing last night."

"Why would-?"

"Ah didn't ask, but I haven't seen the twins around since."

"...I see," Skyfire said, with an amused flicker of his optics.

.

-tbc-


	3. Chapter 3

--

"-So you dropped offline without any warning?" Ratchet reviewed, cross-checking the event in his diagnostics database.

"Yes. It felt similar to offlining from damage, but as you see..."

"Let's take a look under the hood, shall we?" Ratchet agreed, tapping one of Skyfire's forward chest panels.

Skyfire considered reminding the medic that the panel in question was called a 'cowling' on aircraft, but decided not to. Ratchet was his friend, and 'take a look under the hood' sounded like just another one of Spark Plug's expressions.

Skyfire unlocked the latches from the inside, and Ratchet peered in, transforming his hand into a multimeter to check the power couplings.

"You said you just came out of recharge?" Ratchet asked, checking another reading.

"I did stop to renew my energon supply..."

"Did you notice you were running .523 degrees hot?"

"No- -what does that mean?"

Stealing a glance at the shuttle's worried face, Ratchet decided not to offer any more specifics until he had a solid diagnosis. ...While Skyfire might be intelligent enough to understand the technical details of medicine, he WAS still a patient.

"It narrows down my search a little. Unlock your center forward panel," Ratchet instructed. He looked down into the compartment, and kept his face perfectly blank.

"Skyfire?"

"Yes?"

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with you."

"Then why did I drop offline?"

"This might have had something to do with it," Ratchet said, displaying what his optics were seeing on the monitor that took up most of his chest.

"...Oh!..." Skyfire's own spark was there in it's casing of course, but a second, much smaller spark was glowing in the usually dark cylindrical component mounted just beneath it. "-Is that...?"

"Yes. Congratulations."

"I... I had no idea," Skyfire said, smiling a little.

* * *

"You offlined because even without a chassis, the spark is a form of crystalline computer," Ratchet explained kindly. "-When a newly formed spark builds up enough relays to boot up for the first time, his creator offlines automatically to keep their personalities from cross-loading."

"He's thinking... right now?" Skyfire asked, quietly.

"Very basic thoughts, but yes."

"So crystallization time affects intelligence?" Skyfire deduced.

Ratchet paused, surprised.

"It does, and at this stage he shouldn't be separated any further. -Before sparks start processing it's possible to safely separate them into twins and so on, like Sunstreaker and Sideswipe."

"What about space travel?" Skyfire wanted to know.

"Hmm..." Ratchet frowned, consulting his medical database. "I don't have as much information on flyers as I'd like. Have you been out of the atmosphere in the past month or so?

"I helped the Humans build a new space station, and we were in orbit for nearly two days," Skyfire replied, uneasily.

"I'll do a refractory index," Ratchet decided, "-hold absolutely still for this." The medic took up a small instrument, and shone it like a flashlight at the new spark. It glittered back brightly. "Ah... he's fine. Perfectly intact. If anything it looks like zero gravity was good for his crystalline structure, but just to be on the safe side, why don't you stay within Human physical limits when you leave and re-enter the atmosphere."

"No problem," Skyfire agreed.

--

Ratchet looked uncomfortable for a moment.

"Skyfire, who was your partner on this?"

"Why?" the shuttle asked, keeping his voice even.

"You may not have known, but it's been standing orders since the beginning of the war to clear it with the leader first if you're planning to create a new Autobot."

"...I see." Skyfire shut the open panel on his chest protectively, and thought about the problem. "...The truth is, I didn't plan this."

"You must have known you were configured for it," Ratchet pointed out.

"Well yes, but the Earth exploration mission was a remote field assignment. All nonessential components are powered down and unplugged for the duration, and I thought they still -were-," Skyfire explained.

Ratchet considered this.

"You've been repaired by several different beings since you awakened in the modern age. I know -I- didn't tamper with your settings, and Spike doesn't have the system knowledge. Could the Decepticons-"

"-That's it," Skyfire interrupted.

"What?"

"Spike. When he repaired me in the Andes mountains, he was climbing out of my left forward chest panel. That's where my main electrical relays are."

"Primus, if you'd come on-line early, he could easily have been electrocuted in there..."

"Yes, but tell me Ratchet, what would a well-meaning young Human like Spike think if he saw several loose power connectors and one that was unplugged entirely?"

"...He'd push ALL of them back in," Ratchet sighed wryly, folding his arms.

* * *

Skyfire unfolded the next solar panel in sequence, and fitted it onto the orbital power station he was building. It was one of several projects that he hadn't told the Autobots about yet, and for the first time, that bothered him. Skyfire hadn't deliberately kept secrets from his Earth-bound comrades, but the habit of not presenting his scientific discoveries until they'd been thoroughly tested was second nature to him.

The Autobots MEANT well, but the last age or so of war seemed to have contracted them into a tightly-meshed family unit with Optimus Prime as the undisputed decision-maker.

The semi-truck LISTENED to his fellow bots, and the fact that he cared for them all deeply was beyond question, but Optimus was a little... the word 'controlling' struggled to make itself heard in Skyfire's databanks, but he discarded it. With the number of bots like Brawn who thought only in straight lines, it was easy to see why Optimus had been forced into the role.

Still, Skyfire wasn't Brawn... nor yet was he Wheeljack.

Is this just arrogance? Skyfire asked himself, unfolding another panel.

No. No, it wasn't.

His unique perspective was the result of luck, circumstance, and Cybertronian Scientific Corps training. As much as it might wound them to find out that Skyfire had been building things like the power station behind their backs, the truth was that the minute he told them about it, Soundwave or one of his cassetticons would know too.

A beep from his fuel system told Skyfire he'd slipped below one quarter power again. Skyfire looped the cables for all the completed solar panels, and plugged the last one into the main power converter at the station's heart. It didn't make energon cubes with anything -like- speed, but the patient shuttle drank a cube he'd brought with him, and watched what it DID do.

By the time he was finished, the converter had filled three small cubes that floated in the storage basket below like glowing dice. Skyfire couldn't figure out why the converter kept making them that size, but the voltage was stable.

He ate the small energon cubes like popcorn, and continued his work.

* * *

Starscream switched off his afterburners, and flew in low over the water. Crater Lake was calm, with only a few campfires out on the Southern shore. He landed on the Northern face of Wizard island, transforming and landing with a rattle of loose stones.

Starscream walked up to the summit of the island, and waited.

Half an hour later, he grinned and hid himself in the trees. Engines. Further away, then nearer... then the hissing crunch of landing gear on gravel, and the multitude of whirring servos and clunks indicating a transformation sequence.

Followed by footsteps too heavy to be anyone else.

Starscream waited until they were almost past him, then took Skyfire down in a diving tackle.

"You should watch your back," Starscream grinned down at him, sitting backwards on the bigger mech's canopy.

"And you should watch where you're going," Skyfire said, pulling him down for a kiss.

"Oh, I missed you... (kiss) You would not believe the crazy SLAG Megatron's been dishing out lately (kiss) but I think my time is (kiss) -WOULD YOU LET ME FINISH A 100111010010 SENTENSE?!" Starscream yelled.

"-I missed you too," Skyfire said, unapologetically.

Starscream glared back, his ego too satisfied with the response to think of a sufficiently cutting reply.

"I've heard some interesting rumors about you lately," the jet said, slyly.

"Such as?" Skyfire asked, carefully.

"You're working for NASA on the side."

"Yes, I am. Human science may not be anywhere near ours yet, but they're a most promising species."

"Well, if keeping pet monkeys makes you happy..." Starscream smirked.

"You're far too speciesist," Skyfire told him.

"YOU said the lizardbots on Aterra 7 were promising too," Starscream reminded him.

"And?"

"And they tried to SCRAP us, remember?"

"You disrupted one of their most important religious ceremonies," Skyfire pointed out.

Starscream laughed, remembering.

"-I hadn't thought about that in ages..."

Point for me, thought Skyfire. When their 'understanding' first began, Starscream would never have brought up the past at all.

--

"...What's with you and the smiling today?" Starscream asked, stroking the side of Skyfire's light gray face.

"I'm happy," Skyfire shrugged. "I've been working with tiny little scientists that can fit in the palm of my hand, and now I've got you sitting on my lap."

"Ah-hah. I'll believe that for a nanoclick."

"-I invented something."

"THAT I believe. What does it do?"

Skyfire opened a storage compartment on his forearm, and took out a handful of small energon cubes.

"What the-" Starscream picked one up, studying it suspiciously. "-Why is this so small?"

"Just turned out that way. Taste it."

"You're seriously expecting me to consume one of your experiments?"

"Perhaps not. -Your loss."

"You're certain this is safe- -no hidden SPECIAL properties?" Starscream asked, doing one-handed finger quotes.

"None that I know of."

"I'm disappointed," Starscream told him, and drank the cube like a shot.

"Well?"

"...Slag ME, these are GOOD!" Starscream said, taking another one. "It's- whatchamacallit... like heat off'a runway in the afternoon... -Solar energy."

"Exactly."

"I -really- wish you would come back and be a Decepticon," Starscream told him, affectionately.

"No you don't," Skyfire snorted. "You LIKE sneaking around, and you want to go back to the Nemesis with the taste of these in your fuel lines and know Megatron didn't get any."

"You really think I'm that petty?"

"I do."

"And you called the ship by it's proper name," Starscream observed, optics glittering. "I don't remember letting THAT slip, and you've never been there..."

"Want another one?" Skyfire interrupted innocently, tracing the corner of a small cube down the side of Starscream's neck.

"Yeah..."

* * *

Slow. Overwhelming. Powerful, like a wave of static that jammed all frequencies to leave touch alone intact. Starscream couldn't remember how long it had been going on, but he could feel the heat of the air that left Skyfire's vents against the surface of his red chest armor, and he could sense just how completely the shuttle was with him. ...Was his.

Even through the pleasure of it, the power was intoxicating.

Starscream saw one of the new energon cubes in Skyfire's big white hand. And an orbital solar power station... but it looked Human-built...?

Starscream saw the medical bay on board the arc, and the Autobot called Ratchet-

Soaring. Above everything. Air so thin Skyfire had to have been going mach two or better just to STEER...

Dawn.

Sunlight breaking over the edge of this beautiful, STINKING planet in a halo of violet and gold, sinking into him, somehow blending through his skin with the solar energon, a feeling that grew, dissolved, and then simply exploded.

* * *

"You read my mind, you greasy little lawn dart," Skyfire murmured, stroking the fragile amber surface of Starscream's canopy with two large fingers.

"Of course."

"What did you get?" Skyfire asked, rubbing his thumb along the canopy as well, a little more firmly.

"You love to fly as much as I do. You genuinely like this planet, which I can't for the SPARK of me understand... and you're trying to hide the fact that you went in for repairs recently," Starscream finished.

"You got more than that, didn't you."

"Should I have?" Starscream smiled.

"You shouldn't have been peeking at my thoughts at all," Skyfire said, optics narrowed.

"What about the mechanic? Haven't you been feeling well?" Starscream asked.

"I'm fine, that was just- -what else did you see?"

"Oh, I get it, you were TRYING to show me your new solar collector..." Starscream grinned, "-I was wondering why it was so easy to see past your firewalls."

"I didn't share that with you lightly," Skyfire warned him.

"...Do you know what I love about you?" Starscream asked, suddenly.

"What?"

"The way you manipulate me into doing things we BOTH want."

"...Thanks. But I meant what I said."

"I -know-," Starscream agreed, and kissed him.

--


	4. Chapter 4

--

"Colonel Richardson?" Skyfire crouched down to peer through one of the hanger windows. Inside, a team of Humans were repairing the wing of a NASA modified KC-135, and a half-built wiring harness was laid out carefully on the hanger floor. The Humans looked up at the sound of Skyfire's voice, and while two looked uneasy and one looked ill, most of them were smiling. Skyfire smiled back.

One of the Humans detached himself from the maintenance crew, and sent the others back to work. He was an older man with salt-and-pepper hair worn in a crew cut, and a polo shirt in a shade of pale yellow that could only have looked natural in Miami.

"The Colonel's gone home for the weekend. I'm Mr. Jeffries, put 'er there."

The Human held out his hand.

Skyfire eyed the fragile-looking appendage doubtfully.

"I'd love to, but I'm rather statically charged at the moment."

Mr. Jeffries pointed to a metal ring set in the concrete several yards away.

"Ah. How silly of me-" Skyfire touched the grounding point, and a visible arc of energy cracked between his fingers and the metal. It subsided after a moment, releasing the fine sifting of dust, leaves, and assorted bits of paper that had been stuck to Skyfire's frame.

The white shuttle looked visibly cleaner.

Mr. Jeffries sneezed explosively, and dug a crumpled red bandanna out of his back pocket.

"So you've been having a problem with static electricity..." the Human stated, in between blowing his nose.

"Yes. It should pass in a few weeks, but I didn't want to 'shock' you."

"No kiddin'," the Human grinned, and offered the shuttle his hand again.

Skyfire took it very gently between finger and thumb.

--

* * *

Megatron steepled his fingers thoughtfully.

"Soundwave, come here."

"What is your command, Megatron?" the blue-armored intelligence officer asked.

"Have you noticed anything odd about Starscream's behavior lately?"

Soundwave thought for a moment, his red visor blinking as he reviewed the past few hundred times he or one of his cassettes had seen the prickly air commander.

"-Data inconclusive. Decreased displays of respect, increased obedience. Theory: presence of outside factor."

"In-ter-esting," Megatron intoned, darkly.

Soundwave waited, as he always did, without straining the silence between them.

Ravage padded silently into the room and sat beside Megatron's throne, watching him through slitted, luminous eyes.

"Read his mind, Soundwave," Megatron ordered finally, "-I want to know what Starscream is planning, and who's -helping- him."

"Affirmative," Soundwave nodded, though he knew better than anyone how challenging it would be to read Starscream without the intelligent F-15's knowledge.

Soundwave strode out of the room, and Ravage followed him.

--

* * *

Wings.

Skyfire frowned at the datapad in his hand, and clicked back through the past few screens of designs he'd drawn. Fighters, shuttles, even a few commercial jets. None of them looked right, somehow...

"Hey Skyfire!" Spike called up from the level of the floor.

Skyfire wrote, 'and this too shall pass...' in Latin at the bottom of the screen, then subspaced his datapad casually.

"What can I do for you, Spike?" he asked, offering the Human a hand up onto the counter.

"I got to thinking," Spike began, keeping one hand on the shuttle's thumb as he was lifted, "-you said you were interested in the different forms of life here on Earth, and there's one I bet you haven't seen yet."

"What would that be?"

"Whales. Me and my dad used to see 'em breaching in the ocean off the oil drilling platform, and some were as big as Autobots."

"I've read about these creatures- -what species of cetacean did you see?" Skyfire asked.

"I dunno what kind they were. -Chip might know if you took him with you."

"I'm going now! Would you like to come with me?

"Sure!"

Skyfire deposited the Human inside his canopy, and transformed.

--

* * *

Starscream flew over a dry stretch of Eastern Oregon, and slashed through some telephone lines with the tip of his wing just because they were there.

100010100101110 Megatron!

1011001110 Megatron and SLAG his stinking informers!!

Starscream swept low over the scrub-lands, pushing his turbines just this side of pain.

He KNEW Soundwave had read his mind, and that he'd seen the satellite. He KNEW what Megatron would do. He couldn't let Skyfire fly into a trap, but he couldn't tell the shuttle what had happened without losing Skyfire's confidence, and probably his company. He also couldn't let Soundwave know that HE knew he'd been read, or Soundwave might try a technique he couldn't detect next time.

And there would be a next time. There always was.

The F-15 screamed his rage and frustration out over the empty country that surrounded him, and panicked a herd of deer feeding half a mile away.

--

* * *

Skyfire woke from recharge early. His room was a patchwork of shadows, and the only light came from an Earth-style chronometer on the far wall which read, '03:45' in glowing red digits. Skyfire sat up sleepily, and adjusted one of the dials on the side of his helmet in an effort to clear the fog from his mind.

A jolt of electricity crackled from his hand to his helmet, and Skyfire swore under his breath. He listened in the dark, but heard nothing that wasn't supposed to be there.

Nothing... except nothing.

The homing signal on his number seven secure channel had vanished, leaving only a soft dead hiss. The other thirteen active channels were still transmitting, but number seven was the one he'd shown Starscream...

Skyfire sighed, and buried his face in his hands.

"You just had to tell them..." he muttered, disgustedly.

The sudden movement hadn't improved his static situation, and Skyfire could feel the prickling, jittery feeling wrap itself around the copper-alloy fittings of his fuel manifold.

Skyfire grounded himself out by putting a foot on the floor hastily, and kept his optics offline until his systems felt more stable.

"Ugh. Okay that's it, I'll deal with this in the morning..." he decided, stretching out on his berth once more.

A warm flicker of electricity seemed to brush across one of Skyfire's power connectors just as he was shutting down, but that was probably just residual static...

--

* * *

"A self-destruct!!" Megatron bellowed, "-you failed to mention that it had a SELF-DESTRUCT?!"

"How could I have known, o mighty one? It didn't blow up when I stole the first load of energon cubes..." Starscream pointed out, edging away.

"That's BECAUSE the self-destruct was set to blow if THREE OR MORE MECHS APPROACHED IT AT ONCE!!" Megatron snarled, "-Which you failed to DISCOVER before you grabbed these worthless TRINKETS!!"

Megatron struck the neat tower of bite-sized energon cubes on the table with his fist, crumbling them in a tidal wave over the horrified Frenzy.

Starscream's piteous explanation faded down the hall as Megatron dragged his Lieutenant out by the wrist.

Frenzy's head emerged from the glowing pile of cubes.

"You all right, bro?" Rumble asked, from the edge of the heap.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Frenzy nodded, picking up one of the delightfully minibot-sized energon cubes.

"-Are you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" Rumble grinned, picking up a cube of his own.

"Boss-bot DID kinda say he didn't want these any more..." Frenzy agreed, grabbing a second cube.

They looked at each other across the luminous pile, and snickered.

"Cassetticon secret stash!" the brothers chorused gleefully, and each dashed away for vent ducts unknown with an armload of cubes.

--

* * *

Starscream waited.

There was a crescent moon overhead, and high scudding clouds.

He waited.

The moon passed over Andromeda, hid part of Cygnus for a time, and finally sank in between the constellations Aquila and Lyra.

Starscream got up without a word, transformed, and flew off to the Southwest.

--

* * *

Bumblebee looked out over the wreckage of what had been a charming island in the South Pacific, and sighed. Skyfire put a hand on the little mech's shoulder.

"It should be all right after a typhoon or two. -Though hopefully not before we can get all these jet-napped flight crews home..."

Bumblebee nodded, surveying the immense pile of scrapped cargo jets on the island's leeward side. A huge crowd of uniformed but ragged Humans were clustered on the other side, talking to Optimus Prime and Mirage. Hoist, Prowl, Hound and Wheeljack were welding together a boat on the shore a little further down.

"You know what scorches me the most about this?" Bumblebee asked, crossing his arms.

"What?"

"The Insecticons' Cargo Cult trap has been done before. By the HUMANS. I just can't imagine Humans being so... evil."

"It takes all kinds to make a universe," Skyfire told him.

"Yeah, but do Insecticon-types have to BE one of those kinds?" Bumblebee pointed out.

"Come on," said Skyfire, "-let's go help Wheeljack and the others."

--

* * *

Starscream waited.

There was a thin fingernail of moon just rising in the East when he heard it.

Engines, faint, then nearer.

Starscream stood in the open, fists at his sides, and waited.

Skyfire transformed in the air, and landed nearby with a momentary shockwave.

Neither of them said anything right off, which Skyfire took to be a good sign.

"I know. About the South Seas mission," Starscream bit off finally.

"That's good," Skyfire agreed. He was feeling better tonight, but another 'don't stand me up' speech would have worn thin -very- quickly.

Starscream said nothing else, though he seemed to be almost vibrating with the effort.

"I know about the solar collector," Skyfire offered, coolly.

"Yes, I thought you might..." Starscream nodded, not looking directly at him.

"I'm not mad, Starscream."

"What? Why not?" Starscream asked, optics brightening in surprise.

"Don't get me wrong, I AM disappointed," the shuttle explained, "-but I also know as well as you do that the solar collector I built didn't come with a self-destruct..."

"Can you build another one?" Starscream asked, speculatively.

"I could, but my point is this: I can't keep telling you things if you can't protect the information."

"That was a TEST?" Starscream screeched.

"Yes. You get a three out of five."

For a moment Starscream was speechless, his face contorted in rage. He raised his right arm-canon, then lowered it, slowly.

"What do I have to do to WIN?" the fighter jet asked, keenly.

"I just told you that."

"...Will you still meet me like this while I'm working on it?"

"Of course. I'm trying to motivate YOU, not me..." Skyfire smiled.

--


End file.
